Alarm in Gadougou (Vandersteen comic)/plot
At Scotland Yard, Biggles meets a young journalist, Evelyn Stewart, who has permission to do police stories. Biggles is intrigued by her. She had just come back from Gadougou, where two French engineers had disappeared recently. Evelyn tells Biggles that she had met the engineers at a party thrown by one Monsieur Daran, a rich businessman and owner of rubber plantations. The two engineers, Lecler and Redan, went out to the terrace of the house and did not return. Still she had managed to take photos of them but these had been confiscated by the police. Her newspaper had made the arrangements and she would be going to Gadougou the next day to retrieve the photos. Biggles tells her that he would be travelling with her--an old friend Major Peter Rawlings, had invited him for a big game hunting expedtion. Evelyn cannot believe this to be a coincidence--a detective going on leave to Gadougou just when two engineers had disappeared? Evelyn's suspicions are partly correct: before leaving Biggles does get a briefing from Colonel Raymond. Lecler and Redan were experts in the construction of rocket bases. He shows Biggles pictures of the engineers but advises him that he would be acting alone and unofficially. Still, he wants Biggles to find out what happened. After arriving at Abdijan, Rawlings, Biggles' host, tells him he had arranged for them to join a safari organised by Daran, guessing that Biggles might be interested in this French businessman. Evelyn calls Biggles and tells him she would be going to the police to collect her photos the next day but some unknown man had called up offering a high price for her film. Biggles is intrigued and decides to accompany her to the police station, disguised as her chaffeur. Departing the police station with her photos, Biggles and Evelyn almost collide with a truck which deliberately charges down at them. The truck hits a tree and the driver steps out. He is badly injured but draws a gun anyway and demands Evelyn's photos. Evelyn throws her bag at him and he falls over and dies shortly thereafter. What's so precious about the photos? Biggles takes a look. The two people Evelyn had photographed as Lecler and Redan are not the same people as the two on the Scotland Yard dossiers Colonel Raymond had shown him! Biggles mounts guard in the lobby of Evelyn's hotel. In the evening, Monsieur Daran calls for Evelyn and meets her in the lobby. In the meantime, a mechanic shows up asking to go to Evelyn's room to fix the telephone. Biggles follows him and spots him frantically searching through Evelyn's things, evidently hunting for her photos. Biggles surprises him and knocks him out and disposes of him outside the hotel. But that is not all. The next day, Biggles and Peter Rawlings hear the news on radio that some men had robbed a mail truck. Only one envelope had been stolen. Biggles is sure that must be the packet containing the photos which Evelyn had sent to her newspaper. It seems that Daran places great importance on the photos, but why? Daran had invited Evelyn to join the safari but Biggles suspects that her life might be in danger and orders her to depart for home on the next flight. The safari sets off without Evelyn and they camp for the night in the African bush. As night falls, Daran sneaks out into the bush with a portable radio. He contacts a station named O-X and tells them they would enter the "forbidden zone" the next day. Only Biggles and Rawlings are with the safari. He would call O-X again once he had eliminated them. Suddenly Daran's assistant spots some movement in the vegetation nearby. But Biggles and Rawling are still fast asleep in their tent. Daran's men search the camp area and find ... Evelyn! She has stowed away in a truck! Biggles is annoyed but Evelyn tells him what she overhead Daran saying on the radio. The next day, the safari enters the "forbidden zone", an area controlled by the Buobas tribe. Daran goes to obtain a permit from the Buobas chief and hire some of his men as guides and wildlife drivers. In the camp, Evelyn distracts Daran's men by getting them to pose for photographs while Biggles plants a bug in Daran's radio. Daran tells his men that after Lecler and Redan, more disappearances would look suspicious. He intended to eliminate Biggles, Rawlings and Evelyn by means of a staged hunting accident. The Buobas guides would be witnesses. But Biggles, listening in on his bug, gets wind of this that night when Daran once again contacts station O-X. Biggles also overhears a tantalising clue: Daran expected to be at "the waterfall" the day after. The next morning, Biggles warns Evelyn that Daran would be staging a hunting accident and warns her to be ready. The hunt begins with the Buobas men using their drums to drive a rhinoceros towards Biggles. Biggles shoots at it again and again but nothing happens! His gun has been loaded with blanks! He shouts a warning to Evelyn. Evelyn runs but her movement only attracts the infuriated animal towards her. Biggles calls to Daran and his men to shoot the rhinoceros but they deliberately fire behind it. At the last minute, one of the Buobas guides bravely jumps forward and plunges his spear behind the rhino's ear, killing it. Daran is annoyed that the guide has ruined his plan but must play along. Biggles tells Daran that his men had been negligent in giving him blanks and that his safari is badly organised. He, Rawlings and Evelyn intend to quit and go back the next day. Daran says he needs to send the Buobas guides back to their village and departs in a truck. Meanwhile, Biggles, Evelyn and one of Daran's men walk back to the camp. Rawlings had stayed back in camp on the pretext of having a fever. He now carries out his part of Biggles' plan. Walking by the river, he fires his pistol and tells the guards that he has seen a large crocodile. He tells the guards to watch for the beast while he returns to camp to fetch his rifle. With the guards thus distracted, he searches one of the trucks and discovers that it contains electronic components--a strange cargo for a safari. Unfortunately one of the guards comes back and discovers him but Rawlings manages to shoot him in the arm. Rawlings tends to the wound of his prisoner but now the second guard shows up and covers him with his rifle. A distance away, Biggles and Evelyn hear the gun shots and want to rush back to the camp but Daran's man who is accompanying them points his rifle and orders them to stand still. Evelyn swings her camera case at him and Biggles springs, eventually knocking him unconscious. Leaving Evelyn to guard him, Biggles heads for the camp and arrives in time to disarm the guard holding up Rawlings. Biggles leaves Rawlings and Evelyn to guard the three prisoners while he goes after Daran. He follows Daran's wheel tracks in a truck and reaches a waterfall where he finds a tunnel camouflaged by branches. Going through the tunnel he discovers a rocket base! So this was Daran's plot. His safaris were only covers to ferry supplies to his base. Suddenly, a guard shows up and covers Biggles with his rifle. It looks like game over, but no! A voice from behind the guard orders him to drop his weapon. It's Evelyn! Again she has stowed away, now in Biggles' truck. Biggles ties up the guard and tells Evelyn to take lots of photos of the place and get back to Rawlings, who will forward the evidence to Raymond. Meanwhile Biggles must make contact with Lecler and Redan, if they are still around, and then blow up the base. Watching the base, Biggles see Lecler and Redan being locked inside a hut. He easily knocks out and binds the sole guard and frees the engineers. They explain that they had been kidnapped a long time ago and forced to helpp build the base. Daran had brought in two ringers for them. But Daran's plan had gone wrong when Evelyn took photos of the impostors and then these photos had been confiscated by the police. They two engineers agree to help Biggles blow up the base. They lead Biggles to a large storage area full of rockets. They lay charges among them and run the detonator wires to towards the entrance of the tunnel. But Daran has now discovered the guard Biggles had tied up and goes off to raise the alarm. Daran's men run towards the tunnel and a firefight erupts as Biggles holds them off while Lecler and Redan make ready to detonate the charges. Meanwhile, Evelyn has been busy. She had reached the entrance of the tunnel only to be forced to hide from two men who were lowering a gate over the opening. One of the men sneaks up and takes aim at the two engineers busy setting up the detonator. Evelyn swings her camera bag at him and yells for help. Redan runs to her, decks the gunman and knocks him out. The detonator is ready. Biggles calls to Daran to surrender. His mission is to blow up the base. He is content to leave it to Whichever foreign power was backing the rocket base to mete out the final reckoning to Daran for his failure. Daran doesn't believe it and charges forward, to be gunned down by Biggles. With their boss dead, Daran's men give in. Biggles orders them to leave and get out of the country immediately and then proceeds to blow up the base. Back in London, Raymond is delighted with the results. But Evelyn is not so happy. She is not allowed to publish any of her photos but she does send Biggles a shot of him attempting to take down a rhinoceros! Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)